CR: What standard of care do
most Irish women receive?
Murphy-Whyte: That’s what we’re
in the process of changing. We
actually have a set of national
standards for breast cancer, and all
of the best places in Ireland would
[eventually use] those standards
or start to.
What was happening, and what
was creating some of the problems
for women, was that they were
not getting to a specialist center.
They were getting to a center that
was not sufficiently resourced and
staffed and up to speed in terms of
best practices.
Now we have additional centers
being set up, [but] some of them
aren’t there yet. Europa Donna
Ireland has worked very hard to
highlight the need for specialist
centers and has helped get them
in place.
organizations like ours can tap into
the expertise of the best of what’s
going on in Europe. That’s what
we’ve been able to do in terms
of campaigning for the specialist
breast centers.
[For instance], we’re able to
quote the statistics in different
countries in terms of their
mortality rates and our mortality
rates. In Ireland, our mortality rates
for breast cancer are 15 percent
behind the average in the European
Union. All of those factors are
important for getting the right kind
of changes in place.
they’re involved in—was a great
opportunity. When you look at the
range of what people are involved
in, there are all different types of
advocacy. I was interested to see
where advocacy is at in the States.
We’re quite far behind in that
respect in Ireland, though we are
catching up.
CR: What advice would you give
to someone who is interested in
becoming a patient advocate?
CR: How did attending the
ScientistµSurvivor Program
help you in your advocacy work?
CR | Page No. 61 | www.CRmagazine.org
CR: Are there advantages
to being a part of a large
organization like Europa Donna?
Murphy-Whyte: There are very
strong connections between
Europa Donna and the European
Commission and [European
research] organizations. [Being a
Europa Donna affiliate] is a huge
advantage because it means
Murphy-Whyte: It was an
interesting program for people
like myself who do not have a
science background. The whole
idea of having people you can
talk to about what you’ve heard—
that’s one of the purposes of the
program and it succeeds quite
well. And the contact with the
other advocates—to see what
Murphy-Whyte: [Focus on] the
kinds of things they are interested
in and what they feel they’re
good at and feel they can make a
contribution to.
The other point I’d make is that
I think a lot of organizations want
to do so much. One of the things
I hope I’ve been able to do for
Europa Donna Ireland is to pull
the focus into: What is it we can
do and how can we resource it?
You’re more likely to be effective
if you concentrate on things that
you know you want to put all your
energy into, rather than spreading
it across too many objectives.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Europa Donna Ireland: www.europadonnaireland.ie
+011-353-01-4960198
info@europadonnaireland.ie
